Revision as of 15:52, 11 February 2007

Introduction

The game editor is somewhat less complicated than the weapon editor but still has a few advanced features. Some of the options in the game editor conflict with those in the weapon editor - the game editor over-rides weapon editor settings and is designed to make certain aspects of the game easier to control by doing so. The game editor also contains options that specify what map editor options will apply (see Map Editor), as will be explained later.

Standard Options

The game editor will, of course, contain the usuals, with a few simple additions:

• Worm Health (this could be defined for individual worms, and being able to set it to infinite)
• Rounds To Win The Match(Also, the ability to make it so that the players which wins a determinated number of consecutive rounds wins)
• Automatic/Manual Worm Placement
• Cycled/Random/Manual Worm Selection
• Anchored/No-Jumping/Unanchored Worms
• Stockpile/Anti-stockpile/No Stockpile(And being able to set it for every round)
• Donor Cards (also, the ability to determine which weapons are passed on)
• Fall Damage/No Fall Damage (and a setting for the injury of fall damage)
• Retreat Time (if enabled, this would over-ride all individual weapon retreat times (see Basic Parameters, Weapons Editor, above)
• Hotseat Time
• Time Display

The editor would also contain a few more advanced time options. With turn time, a possible popular option could be Turn Time Decreases As Game Progresses, so that a game becomes more and more stressed and players more and more rushed further on in the game. The settings involved with this option would be the number of seconds by which the turn time reduces each turn, and the minimum turn time that could possibly be reached.

Crate Control

A number of options would be available for more powerful control over crates in the game. But first, a word about the crate system in general, and why it is badly designed.

As it is, health crates do two things, a fact that's easy to forget. Supplying health is the obvious one, but they also relieve your worms, your entire team in fact, of poison, should they have been struck by a scrupulous skunk. This seemingly-insignificant feature is holding back a whole potential game type, where worms must collect health crates to combat a continually diminishing health value, through poison effects, while simultaneously dealing with the enemy. Currently, such a game cannot be devised.

But enough about health crates, the real flaws lie in the utility system. Utilities were made to seperate weapons that caused damage and weapons that aided your team in another way, with mind-boggling failure. There is one transport tool in these utilities: the Jetpack, . Yet there are so many other 'weapons' that don't do damage. Parachute, Girder, Teleport, Freeze, Rope, Worm Select, Bungee, the list goes on. Include the weapons ideas on the Weapons suggestions page, and this number increases to over 30 utilities. Why weren't these herded into the Utilities category? Maybe it was to preserve the F-key shortcuts, maybe it was just too much hassle.

Whatever the reason, utilities should never have existed at all. They can hardly be edited in the weapon editor; only quantity can be changed and that's only if you've completed enough missions to win that option. The utility section would be better off abandoned, and those tools that occupy it dragged into the main menu, where greater editing power can be wielded.

But wait, what about those other utilities? I am of course referring to Double Damage and Double Turn Time, those instant-effect utilites upon crate collection. Low gravity, Laser Sight, Invisibility and Fast Walk should also be moved here and converted into instant-effect power-ups. These are pointless if collectable, so should they be available in standard weapon crates, as a unique surprise, or kept in utility toolboxes as usual? The key feature of these is that they are power-ups, not ammunition. They only last for your turn, and this scarcity of availability has a proven influencial effect on human thinking. You will not want to see it go to waste, so it could completely change what was previously a planned-out turn. All power-ups should have that effect: they should make you think "could I do something with this?"

They should have a separate system (i.e. using the toolbox graphic to denote a power-up) and that system should be fully editable in the game editor, unlike the current utility system which doesn't allow you to disable specific pick-ups. More are needed (suggestions are welcome) and these might include temporary Invincibility, or perhaps weapon specific power-ups such as Teleport Doesn't End Turn, Improved Airstrikes or Girder Intersects Land (a feature that was available with WA, with the use of a third-party program). These power-ups have the persuasive ability to change what happens in a turn, and change the outcome of a game completely.

Power-ups and transport tools should, of course, remain distinguishable from regular weapons if the Host desires. Perhaps the toolbox could be used for this as it is most appropriate, and another sprite assigned to "power-ups", such as a gift-box.

So, what would Crate Control have control over? Taking the above into account and some suggestions I've heard over the years, let's take a look:

Health Crates

Probability of a health crate landing is an obvious starter(Relative or exact). In fact, let's take that as read for all crate types.

The amount of health delivered. This could be fixed, random, or steadily increasing/decreasing as a game progresses.

Whether poison is treated. And, if so, whether for that worm or the whole team.

Utility Crates

Nothing special about these, so long as they are fully editable (as in the Weapons Editor, above) unlike in Worms Armageddon.

Power-up Crates

Temporary Invincibility. Lasts the whole turn.

Teleport Doesn't End Turn. Essentially turns regular teleports into Super Teleports.

Improved Airstrikes/Close Combat/Firearms/Projectiles, etc. Lasts the whole turn.

Crate Spy. Lasts for a definable number of turns or the whole game.

Double/Triple/Quadruple Damage. Lasts the whole turn.

Girder Intersects Land. Lasts for a definable number of turns or the whole game.

Disable all mines or mine-like weapons. Lasts the whole turn.

Low gravity/Laser Sight/Invisibility/Fast Walk. See Editor Specifics

Weapon Crates

Super-weapon Differentiation. An option that allows super-weapon crates to be identified by a red flashing border.

General crate options

Cycle Between Zones. If enabled, the game editor allows specific map options (see Map Editor, below) to control where crates land. This feature would be useful to have crates alternate between the left and right sides of the map, so that in "fort" games, each team gets their fair share of crates.

Type of Crate Alternates. Allows the Host to set a pattern which crate types conform to, over-riding probability settings.

Booby-trapped Crates. Crates may explode when collected with a definable probability.

Maximum Crate Setting. Crates won't appear if the limit is reached, or they will explode if the limit is exceeded, as the host decides.

Crates Disabled/Enabled After Specific Time, Event, Or Turn (see Event Control, below). For example: the Host might want weapon crates available until Sudden Death, but afterwards, they are replaced with shipments of Health crates.

Event Control

This is basically the Sudden Death option panel, only with far more control. You could even have more than one Sudden Death. The events, each editable in strength, will come in many forms, and occur between turns rather than during them:

• Nuclear Bomb
• Flooding
• Earthquake
• Armageddon
• Ozone Hole (a weapon idea. Click here for details)
• Alien Invasion (same as above. Click here for details)
• Reduced to one (All worms reduced to 1 health point)
• Lightning Storm (several random Lightning Strikes)

Other events such as the global utilities can be included, even though they would not be classed as "Sudden Death" events as such:

• Scales of Justice
• Low Gravity
• Double/Triple/Quadruple Damage
• Crate Shower
• Random Mine/Barrel Spawn

These events can each be triggered by a small number of things:

• After A Specific Turn
• After A Specific Time
• After A Predefined Crate Is Collected/Destroyed (see Map Editor, below, for details)
• After A Predefined Zone Is Entered (see Map Editor, below, for details)

Any number of these events, in any combination, would be possible (just not simultaneously). If Flooding was already activated, then triggering another Flooding of the same strength would not make anything(As it wouldn't make sense to trigger two floodings in the same turn).

Object Control

The Map Editor would have a fair bit of control over terrain Objects, but the game editor has some extra options. These would over-ride map-specific options if they conflicted.

Firstly, a list of the objects that would be available. Some of these are new.

• Barrels
• Mines (with the regular settings options of course)
• Self-replicating Mines (as described in the Weapons Section)
• Sentry Guns (as described in the Weapons Section)
• Bunkers (as described in the Weapons Section)
• Spring (as a Trampoline but it doesn't allow to set the power of the jump)
• Vending Machine

Not much bigger than a barrel, this heavily armoured (indestructable, even) object sits defiantly on the terrain, its function being to dispense weapons. Yes, any worm in close contact with this unit can trade in health points, as a sort of currency, for a weapon of his choice from a small predefined list. As if the Vending Machine were a worm itself, it can have any selection of weapons, infinite supply or restricted. All this predefined by the host, who may also choose to have the Vending Machine randomly restocked with anything each turn, and even the prices.

When a worm is moved very close to the machine, a small window not too dissimilar from the weapons menu should scroll in from the left, with cursor available to select anything affordable. Right-clicking or moving away from the machine should close the window.

• Communications Outpost

Allows the summoning of a free but very weak airstrike (type defined by host) that doesn't end your turn. Destructibility is an option.

• Teleport Booth

Allows free teleportation to any location. End turns. Destructibility is an option.

For each of these objects, the number on the terrain can be determined (if random). Otherwise, the game editor can be instructed to allow the map-editor-specific options (see Map Editor, below) to control placement of objects.

Additionally, the game editor will be able to spawn new mines and barrels on the terrain in random spots between turns, with a given probability, in much the same way as crates arrive.

Map Editor Over-ride

The game editor will be capable of disabling map-editor-specific options, so that the scheme can freely be used with any map for its shape only, and not any map-specific settings that come with it:

• Force Indestructible Terrain
• Force Destructable Terrain
• Disable Game-Winning or Event-triggering Crates
• Disable Automatic Spawn Points
• Disable Game-Winning Flags

See Map Editor for details concerning these concepts.

Individual Worm Inventories

This control panel will allow you to determine which worms will be able to use which weapons. It is a simple case of selecting each worm in turn, and ticking off the weapons available in the scheme that it can use.

Additionally, the game editor will be able to do this for each team rather than just all teams - so different teams may have entirely different sets of weapons. In the case that the Host wants one team to have one version of a weapon, and the other team a different version - in any respect - of the same weapon, then the Host can use the weapon factory to do so (see Weapon Factory).